Many people use weapons for the benefit of civilians including law enforcement officers and members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. In order to use a weapon effectively, a person must be able to accurately aim at a target. To accurately engage targets, the strike of a bullet must coincide with the aiming point (Point of Aim/Point of Impact) on the target. Over the years, various techniques and devices have been developed to help a person accurately aim a weapon. One common approach is to mount a sight on the weapon. A person then uses the sight to view an intended target. The sight must be zeroed before being used on the weapon. Namely, the users must calibrate their sights to their weapons to ensure they will hit their target. This is accomplished by adjusting the sights on the weapon to achieve a point of aim/point of impact. This zeroing process is one of the most critical elements of accurate target engagement. In order to aim accurately at a target, it is imperative for the sighting mechanism to be properly installed and adjusted on the gun. This is very important whenever the sight is disturbed in any way.
Initially when sight technology was developed, the most popular method to aim a weapon was using iron sights seen with the naked eye. Using traditional iron sights, the user fires at the center of a target having multiple lines and an image printed out on a medium, such as a piece of paper, similar to the target shown in FIG. 1. The group of shots should land at a predefined distance away from the target center depending on the weapon and sight characteristics. If the shots do not hit the target where expected, the sights must be adjusted so they will hit the target where they should.
As sights have become more common, a variety of weapon sights has been developed. For example, a person can today choose to use day sights, night vision sights, and thermal sights. In each of these categories, there are many options.
Although existing weapon sights have been generally adequate for their intended purposes, they have not been satisfactory in all respects. For example, sometimes it is difficult or impossible to see or detect the lines on the paper target of FIG. 1 with some sight technologies. Furthermore, laser aiming sights create an additional level of complexity for zeroing a weapon.
As an example to address this problem, targets were developed by Boyer, which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,528,397, and by Migliorini, which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,337,475, to provide effective means to zero a thermal weapon sight. The disadvantage of these type of sights is that they are calibrated specifically for thermal weapon sights. However, these targets do not work effectively with other sight technologies. If the user employs a sight different than the thermal weapon sight, accurate shot placement is compromised, because the target does not provide the correct aiming reference. Thus, the user is required to procure and inventory additional targets for other types of sights.
There is a need for an inexpensive target that is universally applicable to all situations and a variety of sights. There is a need for a single practice target device that can be employed with a variety of sights to ensure calibration of a weapon for accurately aim at a real-life target.